Les Savy Fav coming to Long Beach

Art rockers performing at Shine A Light Music Series on Jan. 25 to support children with special needs

Posted
Friday, January 18, 2019 12:00 am

Indie rockers Les Savy Fav will perform at Junction on Jan. 25 as part of the Shine A Light Music Series, which supports children and adults with special needs.

Courtesy Tommy Brull Foundation

By Anthony Rifilato

For nearly a decade, Rockville Centre resident Martin Brull has been trying to attract acclaimed indie-art rockers Les Savy Fav to perform at one of his foundation’s fundraisers to support children and adults with special needs.

On Jan. 25, Brull’s efforts will come to fruition when the Brooklyn-based band, known for its colorful and energetic live shows, performs at Junction, at 20 W. Park Ave. in Long Beach, as part of Brull’s Shine A Light Music Series, sponsored by Long Beach Brewing Company.

“I’ve been trying to get these guys since 2010, before Shine A Light started,” said Brull, who co-founded the Rockville Centre-based Tommy Brull Foundation in 2008, a nonprofit organization focused on improving the lives of those with physical, mental and emotional challenges. “I spoke with members of the band and they were down with the cause and liked that it helps special-needs children. They’re a very lively live act — it’s total performance art.”

The foundation is dedicated to honoring the life of Rockville Centre resident and former Camp ANCHOR counselor Tommy Brull. Since its inception, the group has raised money for multiple charities, including Camp ANCHOR, a year-round recreation center for children and adults with special needs living in the Town of Hempstead, and holds a popular fundraiser each year in November.

Brull launched the Shine A Light concert series in 2011 with the indie-rock band Deer Tick as a headliner. Subsequent shows have attracted major rock acts such as the War on Drugs, Kurt Vile, Titus Andronicus, the Felice Brothers, Luna, Strand of Oaks, Wormburner and Dean & Britta, among others.

Lately, proceeds from Shine A Light have gone toward raising money for Mr. B’s Playground, a space planned to be built outside the John A. Anderson Recreation Center in Rockville Centre that will be accessible to children of all abilities. It is to be named after longtime Recreation Superintendent Anthony Brunetta, known as Mr. B, who died in 2016.

Brull, a local surfer with strong ties to Long Beach, said he was looking to do something different when he organized the music series in 2011. Because he and his brother shared a love of music — especially indie rock and punk — Brull thought it would be cool to put together a benefit concert. He has since organized more than a dozen benefit shows with high-caliber and acclaimed bands.

Les Savy Fav — whose original members formed in 1995 wile attending the Rhode Island School of Design — will headline the fourth Shine A Light show in Long Beach. It is considered a rare stop by the band before they play at Elsewhere in Brooklyn on Jan. 26.

“Les Savy Fav have gained a reputation as an exhilaratingly wild live act,” Pitchfork wrote in a review of the band’s last album, 2010’s “Root for Ruin.” “While the band is known for working up a sweat-drenched crowd chaos, though, their career trajectory has been one of a band focused on truly honing their hard-charging craft.”

The band’s art punk sound has attracted a devoted, large following over the years and influenced bands like Bloc Party. Les Savy Fav has performed at major festivals and on “Late Night With Conan O’Brien,” and the band was included in Pitchfork’s “200 Best Albums of the 2000s.”

Their live shows “are punctuated by the antics of frontman Tim Harrington, including interacting with audience members and on-stage wardrobe changes,” according to the band’s Wikipedia page. “The rest of the band continues to play as if nothing out of the ordinary is happening.” Two of the group’s members, Brull said, are in the house band for “Late Night With Seth Meyers.”

“They don’t really play shows too often anymore,” Brull said. “I first saw them live in maybe 2007 — the lead singer is just really out in the crowd more than he’s on the stage. A lot of people in the Long Beach music community are really excited about the show.”